Audi shortens the innovation cycle

The auto company with the distinctive, interlocking-circle insignia is using software from Open Text as a platform to intertwine its knowledge.

Audi will deploy Livelink to manage, share and collaborate around the company's market research and competitive intelligence. The knowledge management solution will replace existing applications, and represents a broadening of the company's use of the Open Text software.

Livelink is already implemented as a fundamental part of Audi's KM projects at its headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany. The system is also used for Audi's market research information system called MARCO (Market Research and Competitor Knowledge Base); as an information retrieval system for expert knowledge; and as a platform for communities of practice. Those capabilities will be extended across the enterprise in the wider deployment, which is intended to increase employee productivity and shorten innovation cycles.

According to Open Text, Audi chose the system because of its scope and functionality, including its information retrieval capabilities that are independent of data sources and formats, support for online communities and business process automation. Audi wanted a system that was completely Web-based and easily integrated into its existing IT environment for faster implementation.

Tobias Schwab, project manager for MARCO at Audi Ingolstadt, says, "Knowledge management tools must allow people to share knowledge easily, exchange their views on a certain topic spontaneously and find an appropriate expert quickly. It is precisely the collaborative approach of Livelink, along with its Web-based architecture, that made it the right choice for knowledge management at Audi. We will be able to make the most up-to-date market research easily available across the company, and give people a single platform to share knowledge and new ideas.

"The management of knowledge flows translates into supporting processes. Our first experiences with the new system clearly show the validity of this argument, so deploying the solution in all our knowledge areas is the next logical step.